Jean Paul Jeunet was born on December 2nd, 1954, in Arbois.
Born into a hotel-and-restaurant family, he observed the bustling restaurant business with an amused eye and promised himself he would do everything in his power to avoid getting involved in such a fiercely competitive field.
To no avail. While he first wanted to become a veterinarian, Jean Paul soon realised there was no escaping destiny. So he went off to take the entry exam at the hotel school in Nice, from which he would graduate with honours.
Then, acting on the sage professional advice of his father, Jean Paul began a little tour of France, in order to acquire the experience he needed.
He did a stint at the 'Réserve de Beaulieu' and then at the 'Troisgros' restaurant in Roanne, where he was highly impressed by a great chef named Jean Troisgros.
He then headed for the 'Ritz' in Paris and the 'Marée', where Mr. Trompier taught him to strive always higher.
He fulfilled his military obligations at the Cercle National des Armées. |
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He then headed for the 'Ritz' in Paris and the 'Marée', where Mr. Trompier taught him to strive always higher.
He fulfilled his military obligations at the Cercle National des Armées.
After that, Jean Paul got right back to the kitchen, working first with the President of the French Pastry Chefs' Confederation, Jean Millet, and then with Gaston Lenôtre -- both great pastry chefs.
He completed his 'tour of France' with Mr. Cousseau's 'Relais de la Poste' restaurant in Magescq – an experience that left its mark on Jean Paul in terms of rigour and dedication.
Just before returning to his family home, he also developed a profound admiration for Alain Chapel, who "taught me to seek happiness and joy in my cooking."
In 1988, after a few years of working in tandem with his father, Jean Paul Jeunet and his wife transformed the family home into a comfortable hotel for guests.
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His idea of modern cuisine:
"A search for the savours of Yesterday with the lightness of Today"
When I inherited this passion for cooking from my father, a great chef from the Jura region and Meilleur sommelier de France, I never expected to be so happy – so very full of joy – to find myself one day in my native Jura embracing my 'roots'.
When I was a young boy, I had the independent, solitary, ardent character shared by so many people in our region. I needed to experience the freedom I had so longed for, see the outside world. So I set out on my tour of France, well aware of the benefits of a voyage that would allow me to meet others, smell the perfumes of the land and feel France itself penetrating my spirit along with the knowledge I gained.
Many of the chefs I worked with during this period -- Jean Troisgros, Marcel Trompier, Jacques Manière and Alain Chapel -- are unfortunately no longer with us. I both liked and admired these great chefs, and when I returned home, filled with emotions experienced in working with them, I was sure that I would find my inspiration in going back to my own land. So impatient was I to reach that point, that I worked unceasingly, my eyes riveted on the Arbois sky, whose pureness could not help but inspire a simple, authentic cuisine. |
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Then I met Nadine, who was from Chamonix. Strolling with her through our beautiful valleys, I discovered the fabulously rich plant life that abounds in the woods and prairies of our region throughout much of the year.
This awakening to surrounding nature, and to the beauty of the Jura region, was a recurrent theme during walks with botanist friends from France and elsewhere. It was with them that I found the leaves and stems, roots and flowers, fruits and seeds of the artemisia, yarrow, stonecrop, purslane, melilot – and many others as well. My natural environment gave me the urge to get as close as possible to the true values of our land, to better understand the far-off calls of our ancestors and the wisdom they continue to transmit to us.
From this produce harvested in our valleys, I create a gourmet cuisine that awakens all the senses, in which the savour of each ingredient is subtle. My cuisine is a constant search for perfection – nothing is absolute and everything is yet to define. Or perhaps it is a gourmet refuge: a place to remember a kind of life too often forgotten – a way of life that gave us marvellous ways to enjoy ourselves and each other.
I define 'the cuisine of the future' as a search for the savours of yesterday with the lightness of today. To bring this new cuisine – in which the magic of aromas and plants plays an important role – to life, we needed a setting, a sort of 'biotope' where nature and the epicurean spirit could be united.
We wanted the setting to be timeless, a place where stone cold come together with wood and glass in a decor blending the traditional and the modern in simple, uncluttered beauty. Certainly, there are other places, other countries and kitchens graced by water and wood – but none are like ours.
An establishment is rarely reborn a second time, but thanks to my friends Gérard Boucton (architect) and Camille Ballay (interior decorator) who also believe very strongly in the fundamental values that attach us to the land, we were able to create a setting in which the spirits of two generations mingle and unite.
My father is a big-hearted man with a strong character, passionate about his calling and generous in his need to guide, to show the way to all the young people who have passed through his kitchen.
In his time, he imposed a style and left a mark – a mark of willpower and selflessness. He still amazes me with his cuisine, for example when I see him carefully and joyfully preparing for me dishes full of happiness and memories. He has proven to me that there is only one true cuisine: cuisine that makes your eyes light up and that is, as Joseph Delteil says, "lust, sentimentality, flowers of rhetoric".
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Perhaps it is just this kind of cuisine that gave poetic imaginations to the story-tellers and novelists of our region, from Charles Nodier to Louis Pergaud, not to mention Marcel Aymé.
An ardent imagination and a great love of liberty, justice and independence – these characteristics of the Franc-Comtois people incited the works of the philosophers Fourier and Proudhon. Some of these free thinkers, such as Max Buchon from Salins-les Bains (who was a great friend of Courbet) would meet to discuss new ideas about Realism and share a soup made with Comté cheese.
Both Buchon and Courbet were forced to move to Switzerland as a result of these 'suspicious' meetings. (We still do not know what was considered more subversive, the philosophical ideas or the Comté soup!)
The people of our region are also resistant to authority. They are down-to-earth, level-headed and have the same caustic sense of humour as they did in the 18th century. And let's not forget the reaction of the people of Arbois to the decree on 'Appellation contrôlée' wines. Many traditional festivals bring the Past back to life with their rituals, and are the pretext for gourmet and culinary festivities.
The proverbs of the Franche-Comté region are also full of flavour:
Keep an
Egg for one hour,
Bread for one day,
Wine for one year,
A live fish for two,
A mistress for fifteen,
A friend for thirty.
I've travelled around the world, and have always taken with me a bit of this perfume of happiness and gourmet pleasure. If you tell a story with a sparkle in your eye, the people listening will be enchanted. And that, to me, is the best way of describing one's native land.
The modern world has brought a lot of good to our daily lives, but let's not forget that without the past -- without tradition -- the realities of today would have no roots, no foundations. The cuisine of our region, like the cuisines of all the other regions of France, is not just an accident, but the laborious transmission of tradition, which perpetuates memory, and should never be forgotten.
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